


A Gang of Phantoms

by Kaoupa



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Real World Superpowers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:27:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 3,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22453381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaoupa/pseuds/Kaoupa
Summary: The story of how a team of minors were able to take on the corrupt elite of Japan is, without a doubt, an amazing story, and an inspirational one.Sometimes, it's not just a bunch of kids, though.Details the stories of the other Phantom Thieves.(This (probably) won't detail how they got their Personas).
Comments: 1
Kudos: 57





	1. Boss

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I have a thing for the "persona superpowers becoming real life superpowers" idea. Partly inspired by the following post -  
> https://shsl-shipper-gamer-fangirl.tumblr.com/post/164634959679/phantom-confidants-au
> 
> I don't own the Persona series.

It was fairly early in the day, even for Sojiro, as he poured the first cup - Ren and Futaba were watching eagerly.

Carefully, he poured the cup. Even if this worked, or didn’t, he refused to let a cup of coffee go to waste because he’d been careless.

He’d be taking the sample himself first, anyways. If this went badly, he wasn’t going to subject either one of them to one of his screw-ups.

Even if it had been Futaba’s idea in the first place.

“Well?” Futaba asked, as he raised the cup up. “You gonna do it?”

Sojiro sighed, and focused on his hands.

Slowly, they began to radiate light. It wasn’t noticeable, unless you were looking at it directly - but still, he’d decided to refrain from opening LeBlanc until after they’d done a few taste tests.

After he’d held it over the mug for more than a minute, he decided that was enough, and let the Bless power fade.

“Well, bottoms up!” Futaba said cheerfully. Sojiro smirked and took a careful sip.

For a few seconds, he carefully judged the flavors in his mouth, then sighed.

“No good?” Ren didn’t look surprised. Futaba looked rather put-upon, however. 

“Nope. Well, it’s… about the same as usual.” Sojiro replied, shaking his head.

“Maybe you just need more practice! Or maybe next time you should use Bless on the beans instead of the drink…” Futaba fell silent, as she started thinking deeply.

“Maybe I do.” Sojiro sighed. “But no, it seems that I can’t bless coffee to make it taste better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sojiro is one of the team's Bless users - and one of their other healers. Also, he gets Makarakarn and Tetrakarn at later levels, plus that one-hit-kill protection spell that normally only Ren has.


	2. Kaleidoscope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lavenza watches. She wishes she could do more.

Lavenza had never hated any one person as much as she hated Yaldabaoth.

She hadn’t really been aware in the past of what it felt like to hate someone - when she saw humans doing heinous things, she was disappointed in them. In what they could have been, the paths they could have taken to help others, or at least not hurt them. Much of the time, they weren’t even aware they were doing something wrong - or that their actions might hurt someone.

Then, she’d been torn apart. Forced to watch helplessly as her master and the two halves of “her”, were forced into the imposter’s service or the prison the Velvet Room had been turned into.

Forced to watch helplessly as the two young men she’d wished to guide were forced down paths they shouldn’t have had to travel, if she and her master had truly been there to help them find their own.

She was powerless, compared to her usual self. Not even the power levels of a human had been left behind, so through had Yaldabaoth’s stripping of her power been. She couldn’t manifest a Persona - she barely had the power to whisper words of aid and comfort to Ren Amamiya.

(She’d tried to whisper them to Goro Akechi as well, before he’d been truly lost).

But as the Phantom Thieves formed, she’d smiled a little, as she flew past the top of the school where they were talking - the four students, her little brother Morgana (he would always be family for her), and the teacher who she was concerned could kill herself if she didn’t stop helping others so deeply at the cost of herself.

“Oooh! That’s so pretty!” Ann Takamaki gushed as she flew past.

“Very pleasant, but that’s odd…” Kawakami frowned as she saw them. “A whole kaleidoscope of butterflies from different species…”

As she flew away on twenty dozen wings, Lavenza would have smiled, if butterflies had mouths to do such a thing with.

Kaleidoscope.

She liked it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lavenza dearly wants to join the Thieves - and that might be a good story for another AU, how she got amnesia as well, and her and Morgana find their memories together. While she'd be a Wild Card like Goro and Ren due to being a Velvet Room Attendant, her personal Persona, I think, would tend more towards passive abilities, buffs, and debuffs, than direct combat.
> 
> EDIT: A while after this chapter was first posted, I figured that Lavenza might fit as a Navigator like Futaba, if she had her own Persona and truly joined the Thieves (but in contrast to Futaba's buffing, Lavenza would be more focused on healing/helping the Thieves when they're in trouble. Basically, moves like Samarecarm would happen every so often for free, any debuffs or ailments the team got hit with would either be negated, negated and act as the signal for a buff, or get redirected at the enemy. Outside of combat... when the Thieves are in trouble after a major fight, she could act as a medic and heal everyone's health and SP if they are running low).


	3. Providence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hands of fate can bring many blessings.

“Going down!” Ryuji grinned, as the fiftieth floor of Mementos approached. “Heh, halfway to a hundred.”

“Ryuji, I really hope that you didn’t just jinx us into having to go through a hundred floors.” Ann deadpanned, wiping the smirk off her fellow Thief’s face within a second.

“Er-”

“No, he did not.” Cut in a third voice, without missing a beat.

“Phew…” Ryuji looked rather relieved as Chihaya reassured him. 

“In fact…” Chihaya started to murmur lightly, before drawing out her tarot deck, and reaching into it.

The six of coins revealed itself, and she smiled. “Quite the opposite.”

As they descended to the next floor, the rest of the Thieves smiled.

A hallway stretched itself out before them, going for hundreds of feet, but all of them knew from experience with these hallways that the way down to the next floor would be at the end.

And perhaps more importantly, they could see the glint of light in the air that signified treasure chests. At least four treasure chests. And a distinct lack of Shadows.

“You think we’ll get some more gold coins in them this time?” Morgana grinned from down below.

“Oh, that would be sweet!” Ryuji grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chihaya's also a Navigator, but she's more focused on causing issues for the enemy and removing any buffs they get. One of her side abilities is seen here - she can basically "turn the wheel" and make Mementos levels into a beneficial area without Shadows and plenty of treasure, and I can see her turning reinforcements for the enemy into Treasure Demons.


	4. Ronin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iwai decides to break out the "good stuff" to help get rid of the man who is threatening him, his son, and his new colleagues (they aren't his friends. He says).

“What’s in the bag, Ronin?” Ren inquired absently, taking a quick look at the large sack that Iwai had carried into Kaneshiro’s Palace. The blare of the maximum-alert security level and what it implied made it even stranger that he would bring along something that large.

“A surprise.” The ex-Yakuza grunted, not speaking further.

None of the other Phantom Thieves were sure what to say about that. 

“So, is it-”

“You’ll see when we need it.”

In the end, none of the other Phantom Thieves really wanted to say anything to that. And thus, the topic was dropped.

Briefly.

  
  


“It ain’t a pig, yo! This is my Palace’s swine-model defensive mechanoid, Piggytron!” Shadow Kaneshiro laughed.

“Dammit… I didn’t expect he’d have something like this up his sleeve!” Morgana hissed.

“I did.” Iwai’s reply got the attention of the rest of the Thieves. “You said you always fought a powerful Shadow at the end of a Palace before, right?”

“Well… yeah… but we try not to!” Morgana replied. “We’re trying to avoid getting hurt or killed.”

“Good. That’s why I brought this.”

Then, Iwai pulled down the sack.

If it hadn’t been for the orange at the ends of the lip, everyone else there (except Shadow Kaneshiro) would have thought they were looking at a genuine bazooka.

And to the latter, it made no difference.

Mostly because it still fired just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think Iwai would have melee skills for attack - but besides that, no magic besides a bunch of support abilities.
> 
> Oh, and his bazooka. Which would definitely outclass everyone else's guns by a long shot.


	5. Eidolon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Death can be paradoxical.

Initially, when she’d been told by Chihaya that her Persona represented the Death Arcana, Tae Takemi had been… disturbed. Well, it had before she’d learned what the Death Arcana actually meant.

Change was… well, she’d lived with change in the past. Going from a respected doctor to a black sheep had been unpleasant - but she’d met all of her friends that way.

If she’d stayed there, she wouldn’t have been in a place to save lives on the frontlines in the Palaces.

“Mediarahan!” As the wounds everyone had taken from the cognitive Shadow of Shido’s IT President ally vanished under the healing magic, Tae grinned, her meager reserves of SP already starting to fill back up.

A few minutes later, as the Thieves held off both the President - and half a dozen of his “escorts” - she felt enough of it back in her system.

“MAMUDOON!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tae has Curse, recovery passives, and Insta-Kill spells. Also, she has group healing skills and Amrita later on. She's... actually fairly OP in some ways, but her HP and SP are both below normal, and her magic damage output isn't the best. So she's mostly there for the Insta-Kill spells and healing, really.


	6. Okami

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, it can be hard to keep yourself in harmony.

For the last few weeks, Sadayo Kawakami had been dealing with at least one secret admirer.

She had been genuinely flattered at first, but now it was just getting creepy. (The “Teacher I Need You” videotape was funny until some genius sent her a letter that went straight to her apartment. And was left on the doorstep, not the mailbox).

So she might have a stalker.

Not exactly the most comforting thought, even if she wasn’t a Phantom Thief.

Ryuji, Ann, Ren, and Mishima had all promised to keep an eye and ear out for anything unusual, but until something was found, she was stuck dealing with this.

At least she wasn’t paying the Takases any more. She could go out and treat herself - and her teammates - a lot more. And finally leave that maid job.

_ Ah, fishing… _

No papers to grade. No need to dress up. Just time to fish (with a little telekinetic assistance).

Sighing, she threw out her line into the night-touched waters. Grading papers after school, no targets to go after (trying Kobayakawa right after Kamoshida would probably make people suspicious of them)… she was at peace.

_ Wow, she’s sure hot.  
_

Then, the tell-tale sign of “dirty” surface thoughts came through. Kawakami sighed.

“Kawakami-sensei!” She knew that voice. It was another student at Shujin, who wasn’t in one of her classes. She would probably have to have a talk with them after school one day.

All those stories she had read about people with superpowers usually didn’t mention how much it could be annoying to pretend you didn’t have them. Or ignoring the urge to misuse them.

Using nuclear magic like a firecracker to shock someone - or using telekinesis to give a telekinetic wedgie - was not something that a good teacher should be tempted by in the slightest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let’s be frank, Miss Kawakami is entirely the sort of person who would inspire students to be Hot For Teacher. But she doesn't strike me as the sort of person who would want her students to be Hot For Teacher. (Just personal opinion).
> 
> Due to her Temperance Persona, Miss Kawakami actually gets two separate magic types. Specifically, she has Nuclear and Psi magic combined, plus moves to break Makakarn and Tetrakarn and a OHK protection spell - and maybe a move to cure some ailments. Plus she has Spell Master later on.


	7. Passage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even as a Phantom Thief, Ichiko Ohya is as buzzed and competent as ever.

She’d started sobering up, ever since that day she had gotten dragged into Madarame’s Palace and nearly killed by a Shadow before she’d been rescued by the rest of the barely-formed Thieves.

Part of it was because being even slightly tipsy in the Metaverse made her far less effective - and frankly, when she was done exploring with her teammates she was just too tired, even with Takemi’s aids, to do anything besides head home, maybe grab dinner on the way or heat something up, and collapse into bed.

And really, well - how the hell could anyone that came up when she was drunk compare to what happened when she was conscious in the Palaces or Mementos?

She had gotten more leads on Kayo since she’d started this than ever - and frankly, with all of the stories she’d gotten about the Phantom Thieves delving Mementos, she actually had free time now, thanks to her boss laying off of her and being able to go straight to the rotten source of the Thieves’ targets to interrogate them.

_ So… why am I drinking less, again?  _ Ichiko thought.

Unable to remember why, she reached out for the bottle at the center of the table -

Only for a hand to pull it away. “I keep telling you, no.” Tae Takemi said lightly, frowning at her fellow adult and Thief.

“Come onnn, Ta-chan!” Ohya’s slight buzz - after drinking two 16-ounce beers - helped her face fall into a pout more easily. “I’m barely getting started!”

“Ohya-san, we’re going to steal Futaba’s Treasure tomorrow, remember? We can’t have you suffering from a hangover when we go in… I feel uneasy enough as it is knowing that you’ve already been drinking tonight.” Sadayo Kawakami sighed, feeling exasperation and concern for her companion war inside her.

“Guh, fine…” Ohya sighed, and got up.

“Hang on… you’re not going home, are you? You’re staying over so we can do the Palace first thing tomorrow, remember?” Tae sighed. “That’s why you came over to my apartment, remember?”

“Oh… right.” Ohya shrugged, and went towards the place she’d stored her sleeping bag.

“Hard to believe she’s so competent against Shadows…” Kawakami muttered to herself, shaking her head.

“Hey, don’t doubt her. She’s one of us.” Takemi reassured the teacher.

“Yeah, don’t worry!” Ohya grinned as she walked back into the room. “I’m the best - no matter where you go or what you need, as long as I’m around you’ve got safe Passage!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ichiko has Wind spells like Morgana, and she's good at using them. She's got ailment-causing abilities to boot, and they're probably some of the better ones like Brainwash, too. And maybe a passive when she gets her Ultimate that flat out blocks her weakness instead of increasing Evasion against it.


	8. Rally

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting gun-based superpowers when your favorite games are all gun-based can be problematic.

Carefully, Shinya Oda took aim and shot. "Four!"

The emptied soda can he’d been aiming at didn’t explode.

Which was what he’d been aiming for, ironically. “Yes!” He grinned, pulling the trigger again to the model gun that he’d gotten from Iwai. "Five!"  


BOOM!   


This time, the soda can  _ did _ explode.

Even though there was nobody else around in the back alley of Yongen-Jaya he’d been using, Shinya still couldn’t stop himself from wincing and letting loose an awkward “oops.”

“Well, one more…” Shinya muttered. Sighing, he grabbed the soda can that he had “shot” and threw it to the side.

It landed in the midst of a bag that was carrying more than 80 other containers, all put there by him over the last two weeks - and all of them were either sporting a hole or nearly destroyed entirely.

Sighing, he grabbed the next bottle - this time, it was a plastic bottle of “Muscle Tea”.

He had handled the electricity easily, so far. And he was way better at guns than he was at electricity - why couldn’t he handle this?

He hadn’t been able to play Gun About ever since his powers awakened - whenever he “shot” at the game, it turned out that his “gun” abilities seemed to view any sort of weapon as a vessel to fire from.

Well, it was time to train again.

“One!” Pulling the trigger, Shinya grinned as a hole failed to appear in the tea bottle.

But he had to admit, it was weird that after all his time in the Metaverse and on Gun About that he was focusing on learning how to fire blanks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shinya's got a ton of Gun skills, as you can probably imagine, as well as Recarm and Samarecarm at later levels. Plus low-tier electric abilities, but like with Ryuji they are mostly there for hitting weaknesses, rather than dealing damage on their own. He's a Glass Cannon type of character - his HP and endurance are low, so is his magic, but his strength and speed are through the roof. He's going to need a lot of healing to deal damage, but he deals a lot of damage.


	9. Shogun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hifumi is the strategist of the Phantom Thieves, and despite her status as the Phony Princess, she is very good at it. But she is discovering that in the real world, strategy is far more complex than it is in Shogi.

The last few weeks had been the most stressful of Hifumi Togo’s life.

First, there had been losing the game to the shogi pro - despite all of her best efforts, she had been unable to get past his iron guard. The Togo Kingdom… had been far more flimsy than she had imagined.

But her shogi kingdom’s flimsiness had been nothing compared to the flimsiness of the kingdom of her friends in the Phantom Thieves, as they made plans to head to Sae Niijima's Palace, to finally discover the Treasure's location.  


A plan that had been forced on them by somebody they all knew would betray them.  


It had been her idea - pretend the nine of them were the only members of the Phantom Thieves when Akechi joined them, since the adult members of their team had been unable to join them for the fight with Okumura (and had been busy when they entered his Palace the first time).

(It may have saved their lives, if Akechi or his master saw through their desperately-constructed plan - even if they lost Ren, and even the other Thieves, no matter how horrible that would be - the rest of them could go on and hopefully avenge them).

And it had been her idea - to use the “high school-age” Thieves (save the ever-busy Mishima) as a distraction from the true extent of their numbers.

As far as she knew, Akechi had fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker.

But that was no consolation to her inner terror.

The lives of herself and nearly everyone she cared for were at stake.

And their lives were far more valuable than any piece on her Shogi board.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hifumi has Bless skills (who didn't see that coming), but due to Yoshizawa's abilities, she actually focuses less on melee attacks and more on magic. Basically, picture Makoto - except with Makarakarn and Tetrakarn replacing healing, and the personal Auto-moves (she can get both Attack and Speed master) instead of melee and ailments. Plus all of the single-target Hama skills. And Hama Boost... er, my point is, she's magically inclined, but she has a lot of things she can focus on.


	10. Eclipse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuuki Mishima has issues. But he's working on them.

“In the end… I couldn’t be special...”

The look on Goro Akechi’s face - so different from anything he’d seen on his face before, even with the mask - stirred up something in Eclipse of the Phantom Thieves.

“Dude… you’re more than special…”

Ryuji spoke up before he could, though.

Akechi looked just as surprised as he did.

“It pains me to admit it… but your wit and strength far exceed ours individually. We only defeated you by teaming up…” There was a split second pause before Makoto winced and continued. “I was… honestly envious of your talents. It was frustrating to see how much my sister trusted you more than me at times…”

It looked like it had caused Makoto physical pain to admit that.

“...It wasn’t ever enough, was it?”

Akechi, when he looked at Eclipse, looked puzzled.

“Wanting people to look at you like… they admired you. Like they thought you mattered. You wanted to prove yourself and be the best, right? Not second place, the best. Better than anyone else.” He looked down. “Like… like you were irreplaceable. Like you were more than some zero who the world would just roll over and forget without a second thought.”

Akechi said nothing.

But the expression on his face, and that silence in and of itself, said everything that had to be said.

Memories - of losing his Persona, confronting his Shadow in Mementos - came to Eclipse - no, - Mishima’s mind. 

He nodded quietly to himself.

“I… I get you, man.”

Memories of Chihaya and Futaba joining - and both of them, in their own ways, being better than him at navigation even though he had more experience - making him wince. And memories of his attempts to prove himself more useful to the team than them. His wanting to feel… useful. To feel wanted.

And how good it had felt to finally get that out there, deal with his Shadow, and accept himself for real. To finally start moving past that - even if he never did completely.

(And though it may have been small and petty, the fact he was the first Thief to get their second Persona was something he still felt proud of).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mishima is the team's first navigator. Gives ailments and debuffs to the enemy. Increases ailment success rate, and also gives EXP bonuses in his confidant like canon. However, he doesn't have the scanning/manipulation of Mementos abilities that Chihaya and Futaba do, which leads to his arc here. And also causes him to focus more on the Phan-Site eventually, after he accepts that he can not be a zero and still doesn't have to be the best.


	11. Lantern

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, all the fighting in the world cannot do what a little talking can.

“He’s… got guards?”

The Phantom Thieves were, to say the least, concerned.

“Yes. He has nearly the entire building surrounded - there’s no way we can get in normally.” Ohya nodded in minor dread - there were far too many security guards for them to get in without being noticed, or possibly videotaped. “I might be able to get in since I’m a reporter… so could Tora…”

“We need everyone for this, though.” Iwai frowned. “We got plenty of readings through the Palace. There’s no way two or three of us could take down Shido’s Shadow.”

“We need a reason to be there…” Sadayo mused. “Hm.”

A few minutes later, no one had come up with an idea.

Until Ryuji opened his mouth. “Actually… we just need a reason for someone to be there, right?”

"What does _that_ mean?" Tae asked.

Ryuji grinned. "Okay, hear me out..."

  
  
  
  


A limousine - one with stained glass windows - pulled up to the Diet Building.

“What’s your business?” Stated the man at the front gates - one of the genuine security guards, who wasn’t connected to Shido’s conspiracy.

The window started rolling itself down. A somewhat elderly face looked at him through the window.

“Toranosuke Yoshida. I’m here to see the rest of the politicians in my party before elections - also, a reporter I know wanted to interview them. She’s coming with me.”

The guard nodded, waved them through, and radioed in the new arrival.

He didn’t give any thought to why a limo had been rented for only three people, counting the driver - shows of power like that were common in the National Diet Building. (It should be noted that despite later allegations, Toranosuke had paid for the limo rental with his own funds).

The people he passed it on to eventually did, though.

And five minutes later, a small army of security guards who were in Shido’s pocket descended on the stained-glass limousine that had been rented for the night.

And as they descended, they found it empty.

Meanwhile, a few floors above them, Toranosuke Yoshida and Ichiko Ohya remembered the message in their phones from the rest of the Thieves that had signaled the beginning of the end for Shido.

_ The infiltration has begun.  _

_ Thanks, Lantern. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yoshida's got a interesting skillset - he's a fire user like Ann, albeit less powerful than her, but he's also focused on buff skills (he gets every single attack, defense, and accuracy/evasion boosting-spell in the game besides Attack Master and Auto-Matarukaja).


End file.
